Note 18 — Chapter III
Reading edition
Or perhaps the experience contained in a letter to Miss Mitford in 1824 (Benjamin Robert Haydon: Correspondence and Table Talk, 2 vols., 1876):
'I have had a horrid week with a mother and eight daughters! Mamma remembering herself a beauty; Sally and Betsey, etc., see her a matron. They say, "Oh! this is more suitable to mamma's age," and "that fits mamma's time of life!" But mamma does not agree. Betsey, and Sally, and Eliza, and Patty want "mamma"! Mamma wants herself as she looked when she was Betsey's age, and papa fell in love with her. So I am distracted to death. I have a great mind to paint her with a long beard like Salvator, and say, "That's my idea of a fit accompaniment."'